Since we wanted different opinions from people of different backgrounds, the book is currently being review by members of the Fine Arts departments of universities in Southern China, Singapore's Chinese Tea Culture Society and the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California in the United States.

By George Xu  
People's Republic of China

     Born and brought up in Dingshu Town of Yixing, I am very much amazed by Nur Suraya, the author of this book, who has such a deep understanding of Yixing tea pots. Her insights of the Yixing tea pots as a functional art form provide readers with not only useful practical knowledge of Yixing tea pots but with beneficial cultural and philosophical dimensions as well. It can be a very useful hand book for novices of Yixing teapot collecting as it covers complete processes of tea pot making, tea brewing and teapot collecting.

     Personally, I am more interested in the significant role this book plays in the prospect of bringing about more cultural exchanges between Westerners and the Chinese. I believe that Yixing tea pots are becoming a common platform for art appreciation, where Westerners and the Chinese enjoy and meditate upon the same object with possibly different cultural preferences. I assume that Westerners, brought up in a certain religion, occasionally need an escape from the journey to their subconscious and stressful final destination. Collecting Yixing tea pots can provide such an escape. Whereas, the Chinese, especially those intellectuals, brought up in an earthly world with almost no care for religion, might find from the artistic Yixing tea pots comforting to their souls as they are evident traces of China’s distant past that might have been religious.

More reviews will be posted here very soon, please check back later to read what people say about the first book and the series.